[FIELD SERVICE REPORT - AIR FORCE ASSOCIATION] SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE -- KEY TO A FREE AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R002000100008-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 3, 2002
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: August 29, 1975
• Content Type: CIAPER

from ,.Tim a:lube1 Exec utrh7p. Direct'nr
Air Force Association, 1750 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006 (2021452-730
INTO. 16
Subject: Intelligence:-- Key to "a free and independent country!
One of the unfortunate aftermaths of Watergate, st irred by the' iZZe-
community, and of the Intelligence function as a fundrrmental,element of
galities of a few CIA. types. and expanded to widespread crZtz.etisnr aj the
CIA itself, has been the nublie downgrading of the entire InteZ.Z%gence
national security .
have had a field day..-:Intelligence`officers, by nature, are reluctant
The argument, thus far, has beers conspicuously one-sided. ~. T medic
to speak out publicly t
puty Director of.the CIA, at a July 23 luncheon meeting of the American
Thus the. significance of the remarks of Lt. Gen. Vernon TlaZters., De-:
Security Council in Washington.
If you are-not familiar with what he
.be surprised.: As AIM (Accuracy in Media,
letter:
"The Washinaton Star on the day foIZourng General Walters' talk
carried stories on the Walters' talk on their wires, but no paper we
Lirrra to CIA. Activities..::':' We were .informed that both the AP and. UPI
General,. Walters;.: bu ?ing the- report , in .a story headed:. 'Clifford, Urges
talk, even though the Star had a reporter present. The Vera Fork Times
Tied=. to CIA Effort in-.Chile..,' Note. one word was said about General Walters
Gauss , Co lonel's.'Death(2) CIA Panel -Will Call Kissinger ' (3) 'Nixon =
carried three stories-on. the CIA, occupying 70 coEwan: zncnes of to e'.
examined used their stories.
Hwna;c Events,.; :which led `its - August 2:' Inside..Washington_' raort. witk
The only respectable report we found was in. the; conservative meekly,
has a distinguished record 'of service in the Army. . Following are ex
eerpts from his American Security Council address.
General Walters has been with CIA for three and a half years.';-:'.
375-word story'on theWal.ters talk."
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Intelligence is information that is vital to the making of
sound decisions by our government, information concerning foreign
countries and their policies, armament and economics that must
.be properly analyzed and disseminated.
A. lot of intelligence, if you don't get it out in time, is
simply history. It is not intelligence unless you get it to
whomever needs it right away. Why do we need it today?
had the ability to destroy or seriously cripple the United
Well, we need it today because, in my opinion, the United
States is in a tougher power situation than it has been since
Valley Forge. Not since Valley Forge has any foreign country
States. That capability exists today... . .
We see,.in all areas, a tremendous military effort being
made to modernize and improve the Soviet forces beyond what
seems to me to be necessary for either deterrence or defense.
And so the inevitable question which faces the United States
government is:- What use will they make of this, of these
capabilities? And this is a question for which the United
States government must look to the intelligence community
to the CIA and the other intelligence agencies.-- for answers.
generally fail no matter how favorable the outcome."..
secrecy is essential in these matters, and for lack of it they.
Let me tell you a few things about the Founding Fathers.
George Washington wrote a letter, to his chief of intelligence
in New Jersey, Col. Elias Dayton, and said: ."The need for
procuring good intelligence is so obvious that it need not
be emphasized. All that remains for me is to caution you, that
Fathers would have frowned on all of this dirty stuff.
-great effort abroad to make you believe that intelligence is
immoral, un-American, unworthy and everything else, that
everybody should know all the secrets, and that the Founding
One of the problems we have today is that there is a
mine whether any great nation can operate its secret intelligence
President Truman, in 1956,,said: "It matters not.to the
United States whether its secrets become known through publi-
cation in the media or through the activities of spies. The
damage to the United States is the same in both cases."
Right now we're engaged in la number of inquiries to deter-
running a mail-intercept service on the British,
For three years, prior to the outbreak of the Revolution,
Benjamin Franklin, as Assistant:, Postmaster of the Colonies, was
Benedict Arnold. You can guess what he'd have done with him
George Washington operated three kidnap attempts on
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because we are a very unusual people. But if we do, it'll be
just like going to the moon. We'll have been. the only ones
who ever succeeded in doing it.
I think these investigations can be helpful to us, providing
they are conducted in a positive, constructive and responsible
sense and are not operated as some sort of a political football.
The security of the United States is too precious to be kicked
around as a football.
We are quite prepared to accept any guidelines which the
Congress may decide to put upon us, as we've 'lived with the
guidelines they gave us in the past. But I would hope that
when they institute these guidelines, they institute some
mechanism to' change them so that as perceptions of what. is
acceptable and unacceptable change, that will be introduced
in some way into the guidelines.
We are being called-up and investigated for things we did
or are alleged to have done. What I fear is 'that in 1990 or
1985,_ CIA Director Colby's distant successor will be summoned
and he will be investigated for what he failed to do. "You
mean you weren't doing this? You mean you didn't do that?.
You mean you failed to do this?"
Someone said to me the other day, "Don't you think that
some of these things that were done against us were done as
retaliation for what the United States did?"
If you take the vision of the United States as an aggressive,
imperialist, hostile nation, perhaps you can :rationalize this.
But look at the United States, which has fought and won two
great wars in this century, and not only took: nothing from the
vanquished, but helped them. No victor in history has ever
done for the vanquished what we have done. . .
America has brought to intelligence, in my opinion, two
great things: It's brought the application of American tech-
nology and scientific know-how to the collection of intelligence.
And it's brought analysis of that intelligence to a degree that
has-not been known in previous intelligence services.
We had great talks 15-20 years ago about a missile gap.
We can't have that talk anymore. Thanks to intelligence, we
know what the situation is.
One thing that engenders hostility and eccentric, erratic
action is fear of the unknown. I can't go into details, but I
can tell you that we in the CIA have several times brought
together people from different. countries that looked as if they
were near conflict, and we have been, in some part, instrumental
in solving that.
Or sometimes, someone has said to us, "Oh, so-and-so is
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dissipate misunderstandings or, fear of the unknown.
Intelligence, believe me, is a force for.peace as well as
for war. It is a force to guard us against surprise, and.to
they haven't got the means to do it." . .
what I.believe to be the finest intelligence put before any
Our people in-the CIA:are undera torrent of accusation,
mud and. :innuendo, yet-continue to do a superb job producing.
government in the world ,:
American people are willing:to accept as rules and want us to do..
the American people establish.. But they must know what the
CIA. .They're Americans just like everybody else in this room;..
continuity, and most of all,', dedication of the people in. the._._
I.never cease to be:startled at the competence,.. integrity,
?at
but they-have a song that says,-"Sailing depends upon the:
I rarely find myself in agreement with-the Chinese Communists,'.
I would like to say one word about our- director, 'Mr.' Colby:
',.
helmsman,':' and. we have a :superb one.:,
e wasn.t: one column.
seven-column headline. The-.news h
field being a CIA infiltrator of the. S9hite House covered - a .
and the rebuttal never catches up. The news about- Mr.-Butter-
innocence as any other American citizen. The accusation comes,
People sometimes forget.-.`that people in intelligence have
rights=too.. They have the right to the same presumption.of
. The^Congressset up the-CIA in 1947 with the full knowledge
.that it,was going. to engage-in espionage. And they legit tile
-.
National: Security;,'Councill.may direct.'.,.-,
canon.: We have never 'had a'-leak out of our oversight committees.
Wei}can live with -any-,',,kind of oversight Congress decides
as to-what we can..and can't- do.. That's , going._zo oe exiremesy =
..2-. yr '.:? j y .:-~ ~4 .. ." :-r .,,.. ... _..- ;.. .. ... ...
eel less=confident Ghat we will: get any clear guidelines
difficult . to .geto = .
the future .
be decided in the late '70s and '80s.--And I dust hope-that
sometime we begin to spend appropriate time on that period,
which is'-going to determine how we and our children live in
going,to continue as a free. and democratic nation is going to
spending=enormous amounts of time rummaging through the garbage-
and democratic society may well depend upon. it..-We have been
This whole question of.intelligence, as.I:said,'is-a--very
serious